WIXLIB

TOP 2,9001,746,528Manners & Morals(A Play in Three Acts and Too Many Performances)As the curtain rises, the Chorus intones:"Nothing in life is certain except death and taxes-and plenty of Rotten Operating in the DXContest. Excessive duplicates; calling DX stations in pileups without knowing their calls;barging in on call-area CQs when another callarea has been specified ; improper signing ( or nosigning at all); calling banned countries . Oldsoldiers just fade away; old habits apparentlydon't."Act I: The Persistence of (Poor) Memory; or, Unpack Your Troubles From That Old Duplikit Bag. Inthis Act, we proffer the suggestion that, while it islaudable to renew old friendships, there is a limit. Hereis a sample of the dialogue: "I thought QST was quiteclear about avoiding duplicates and was sure surprisedwhen so many fellows couldn't keep track of theirVQ9s ! Words cannot fully express my venomousthoughtsover those duplicates-snarl!"-VQ9B.Howtrue, but words are the only vehicle we have right now.Let's tune in on a few from ZDSJ, who, as might beexpected, comes through loud and clear: "Clearing mylog of duplicates this year required between 20 and 30hours. In another contest, if I am again in the DX position, and not sufficiently cooled off over all this, Iplan to delete completely from my log all stations having duplicate contacts. Instead, they will be speciallylisted as stations with which I was definitely not incontact: no credit allowable." Hw cpy, OMs? AndKL7IR, tongue lodged firmly in cheek, offers words of"praise": ''To the lads that I worked twice (and sometimes thrice) on each band, I can only say 'thanks.'But to the rest of the gang that I worked only once oneach hand, I can only marvel. They must have accessto UNIV AC for instant elimination of duplicate Testcontacts!" In the former category are those who thinkOp Aid 6 is some kind of soft drink ."I still burnat the thought of jerks who jump first and find outwho they've worked after I've logged the (usually) duplicate,"fumes K2SIL/KH6(now KH6GNE).Butwait! Wls BDI BGD/2 and W5BUK, to mention afew, have just rushed onstage carrying a sword thatcuts both ways, and protesting, "Why don't some ofthese DX stations ever sign their calls?" For surethat's one reason for much of the inadvertent reworking,no? At any rate, the fences on both sides could use alittle mending.Act II:The IdentityCrisis; or, Who Was ThatMasked Man Anyway? We present a sensible soliloquyby W9GFF: "There shouldn't be a very long list ofacceptable W /K scores to print in QST if failure to observe regulations causes disqualifications. 97.87 is a sadly neglected or misunderstood regulation. Almost noone transmitted the other guy's call even once, andvery rare to find anyone signing even his own call atthe end of QSO as the new, simplified(?) regs 0,4282,039,6881,872,0001,654,2091,640,520."Super break-in" is ZDBJ's wry appellation forthis ploy of dubious legality. Man, these guys are aselusive as Howard Hughes.Act III: Forbidden Fruit; or, Strike Out the Banned.Another entrant from Nine-Landhas the floor: "Iheard stations calling HS and XV5. Remind the boysthat the multiplier is band-countries,not bannedcountries ! " Yes indeed, and three of the boys (1) calledK8NHW /XV5, (2) worked him, and (3) blithely puthim in their Test logs. Eccch !Epilogue:Brickbatsand Bouquets;or, Virtue,Though Battered and Bleeding, Is Triumphant,SortOf. W A9NSR complains that too many WB6s were S9plus 20-20 kHz., thatis .W AllGF,W A4IKU,W5BUK, KBOUA, and a cast of thousands, all wonderwhy W /VE stations persistently bray CQ TEST, thereby effectively clobbering four AC5s, three 4S7s, two9M8s, one VR6, and a partridge in a pear-tree . .While most of the participantsagreed that the callarea CQs by DX work nicely on phone, WOBWJ stipulates that it ain't so hot if the DX station absentmindedly skips a district. And WA3EFH vents a bitof wrath on the ones who specify the district theywant, then proceed to work anybody that calls, regardless of whether or not they happen to be in that district. . . South of the border, down South Americaway, a couple of the top scorers blended pats on theback with pats lower and harder: "Activity showed tobe improved this year, with the same good ops as everand a few not so good-as the W2 who gave us 599 on80, then asked five times repetition of serial number.Or W4---, who need a memory tonic, for he repeatedfour times his QSO on 20."-LUSDLK,opr. at LUSDQ."Operating practices were superb from almost allthe participants. The 'almost' means a few guys stillinsisting, in the middle of the contest, in passing theirnames, QTHs, power, kind of transmitter and receiver, mikes, aerials, and almost the brand and color oftheir refrigerators and typewriters. On 10 meters a9-plus-40 very persistent fellow, after the few wordscontest QSO, insisted more than six consecutive times,when I said QRZ, in asking my name and QTH. Withsuch a big signal the QRM was tremendousand Icouldn't copy anybody, so I finally came back and toldhim my QTH is OK in the Callbook and my name isNABUCODONOSOR.He came back very fast andbegged, 'Please, how do you spell it?' Of course, Imoved to 15 meters."-HK3RQ.Our grim drama has a happy ending, however. W5QHD, opr. at ET3USA, "would like to compliment theStatesideboys on their courteousoperation." ."Was fun to hear 7P8AR and KH6BZF handle thepileups-theyblendeda little humorand commonsense into what otherwise would have turned into nastyfights."-KJGUD. . "Thanks to W6QFU, who sentme an airmail letter apologizing for a duplicate QSO.,,-ZLJHW.And so, as the curtain falls and the settingsun sinks slowly into the east, we can hear only a confused babble of voices angrily muttering,"The DXThe DX Test isTest is fun! The DX Test is fun!!FUN! ! ! " , . EXEUNTOMNES.From October 1968 QST ARRLQST for

DoodlesScrambleTwo (or More):5H3KJ wound up in sev-eral dozen c.w. logs as "HH3KJ."Anybody seen awhole batch of missing dits? . HB9UB's distinctiveSwiss swing resulted in many loggings of "VS9UB"4S9UB." One W8 workedand, even more improbably,two 4S9s .Phone men were not exempt from thealphabet-soupsyndrome, either:"CRSRA"appearedmore than once, while 8P6 QSOs seemed scarcer than"HP6s"and "XP6s."Our favoritecomment,eventhough it left us totally bewildered, came from a W3:"My biggest thrill was working XP6AY long-path!" . Sore-fingeredbut still smiling, PYSSO admits:"Among the exotic calls heard during the last hours ofeach c.w. weekend, JY2SO, PK2SO and WY2SO wereall me." . Kf)UJNstronglysuspectsthatthe"OUlJA" he worked on phone may not have been entirely genuine.0were needed to entice the DX to tune above 21.1 MHz."-WNllON . . . "Sure needed VO for my broom!(I drank some later.)"-VRSDY .Then you could"Yahoo!have had a call like KH8GIZ/W6 to sign .The one-milliongoal is reached! "-U ASKBO . . "Ioperated from an apartmenthouse which I own andhad lots of interference from my tenants paying rent,etc."-We/ACT.Whata nuisance-allthose peopleshoving all that money at you ."We probably hadis onlythe youngest operator. Our logger, WN0TSI,opr. at Kf)BXI.Don'tten years old."-WAf)EMS,the child-labor laws cover this sort of thing? ."AIO-minute ragchew with PXIPA was required to gethis power."-W9BGX ."I am receiving many QSLcards from the contest QSOs and they are leaving offthe 'G' in HP!XHG,so they automaticallygo intoMuch confusion durthe circular file."-HP1XHG . .ing the second weekends as Statesideentrantswiththeir new twenty-bucktwo-lettercalls had to struggleto avoid duplicateQSOs with DX stationsthey'dworked the previous weekend under the old calls . ."Noticed activity to he down considerablyfrom Instyear."-WSTMZ. . "Onoo again another vy FB contest bites the dust. Several of our ops also bit quite alot of dust, fighting with the antennas in nn 80-m.p.h.wind during the second leg."-G3SXZ,opr. at G6VC . . . "Two weekends in contest and two weekends making n clear log."-XE2A.4G. .My low power, low11antennaA superb score and a flawlessly-typed log were thecontributions of CR6CK, With this modest but attractivelayout. Tony sent code to over 2100 WIVE contesters;his 1.1 meg was a solid top for mainland Africa, secondonly to ZDBJ for plaque honors.The World Bel,ow 14 MHz.: "f'lix new countriM on 40in this contest make 182 on 7 - :\IHz. phone: CR4BC,SV0WL,VK9GN,VU2MSK,7P8 R."DUlFH,KSGXI . "40-meterphone U.S. were ternficonlongpath."-VUSMSK."5W1AT was my #141 on3.5 MHz. I'm still stuck at 245 countries on 7 MHz.,"announced WSMFW, for whom we can work up onlylimited sympathy. Russ uses a 3-element switched array on 80 and a 2-element whirly on 40."Heardmany Wls and W3s on 3.8-plus during second weeke d,hut unfortunatelyI did not break throughdespitemuch calling on 3.799. I guess I picked a bad channel."-ZD7KH . "ThisyearKAswereauthorizedon 80 meters for the first time and this was a great helpin the multiplier department. All my phone QSOs withthe East Coast were first-time contacts between thereand Japan. The highlight of the phone portion wasworking Sam, W1FZJ/KP4,even though it didn't countfor the contest."-KA7AB(now hack at KlKTH)."Three new ones on 80: 5W1AT, W6GEB/KS4,KG6ALV. Missed VS6DD, the one I needed most. Best 80meter sigs were JAIBRK,VQ9JW/P,G3LP, OA4PF,FPSDZ and VK2EO for contest WAC."-WISWX."I did not hear one W /VE signal on 1.8 MHz., althoughI QSOd JA2CLI and JA4IO for their first VK 'tophand'."-VK5KO."We beg the pardon of W9YB, W4BVV and W6RW, but their sigs failed to reach BuenosAires' on 160, being the band very noisy."-LUSDQ.Triumphs and Tragedies: With ten meters completelydead between the East Coast and Europe the secondc.w. weekend, W6s got an unexpected dividend: a fantastic opening to Eu between 1700-1900Z on Sunday . . . "I am very sorry that I was just one QSO short":WM s.s.b. nettedof one million points."-oHSKJ . .102 countries in the first 24 hours."-WSZKH/3."Why do the G/VK/ZL boys wait till the contest to. . "Thoughtthecomment on my call?"-WA9RATworld ended at W6 for a long time but eventually gotthroughthe W6 curtain."-VK5FH . "ManyCQsOctober 1968and low operatingskill didn'thinderme nt all-Istill did terrible."-WA7JCB . "It'snecessaryOrto be a Hercules to do the contest, hi."-CTIMW.out Andre's last name in the Cal/a PZIAH-checkbook . ."So vy tired."-JAJCG."Sure is toughtrying to work into W /VE with an American accent,low power and poorly-placedantennas.To mnke itworse, many W /VE stations thought F0 was a piratecall."-Fe/DA ."Four out of seven straight weekends is just too much to ask the XYL to tolerate! Thefirst weekend she was very pleasant, the second weekend she made facetious remarks about my steadfastness to get a good score, hy the third weekend theflavor of her comments was sarcastic; when the fourthweekend arrived,her sarcasticattitudechanged to.downrightv1c10us anger!"-K4WUM"HadtoQRT during an SO-contact-an-hoursession on 10 meters the first weekend when the next-doorneighborbanged on the door, pushed past my pregnant wife almost knocking her down, stompedinto the radioshack, tore the earphones off my head and flung themon the floor, announood I was interfering with Daktarion his TV, and stomped out before I had a chanoo toget out of my chair. The XYL got hysterical andwould not let me continue despite the fact that our ownTV in the next room was not affected in the slightest!"-LAf)AD.Califorlornia: "First in war, first in peace, and lastNope, Doug, notin Santa Clara Valley?"-WA6QQI,even close to last, but it was a good line anyway . Knocking them off faster than a speeding bullet-a 75watt Ranger signal more powerful than a locomotiveable to leap huge pileups in a single bound-it wasPZ1AH gathering in more than 2 million points via thecode route. Andre knocked off 6-bond exchanges withWA3EP

eligible for score listings or awards. In Pa "h case, dis qualification was under Contest Rule #14 in view of non-adherence to FCC rules as reported hy at }past two accredited Official Ohservn:-;, or hy a single FCC cita